What a debt schedule is and when you'll need one
A debt schedule is a one-page list of everything your business is paying back: advances, loans, lines of credit, equipment financing and leases. Each one gets a row with its amounts, payment and current balance, and the bottom line shows the totals.
Lenders and funders ask for one because it puts your existing obligations next to your bank statements in a form they can read quickly. Bylt Capital's own documents checklist lists a balance sheet and debt schedule for term loans, covering every loan, advance and lease you're paying. Even when nobody asks for it, a schedule is the fastest way to see your whole picture before you take on anything new.
Leaving something off rarely helps. Underwriters can usually see advance payments in your bank statements, so a schedule that skips one raises questions instead of answering them. Our guide to what your bank statements show an underwriter explains what they look for.
The columns to include
A general business debt schedule often has columns for lender, original amount, rate, payment and balance. Merchant cash advances need a few more, because they're priced with a factor rate and often paid daily or weekly. These are the columns in our template:
| Column | What to enter | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Funder or lender | The company you pay | Use the name on your bank statement if it's different from the brand name |
| Type | MCA, line of credit, term loan, equipment, SBA, lease or card | Keeps advances and loans apart |
| Date funded | The funding or effective date | From the contract |
| Original amount | For an MCA, the purchase price | For a loan, the amount borrowed |
| Total payback (MCA) | The purchased amount | Leave blank for loans |
| Factor rate (MCA) | Total payback ÷ original amount | Leave blank for loans |
| Interest rate (loans) | The rate on the loan agreement | Leave blank for MCAs |
| Payment amount | The fixed payment | Per payment, not per month |
| Frequency | Daily (business days), weekly or monthly | Needed to convert to monthly |
| Monthly equivalent | The payment as a monthly figure | See the formula below |
| Current balance and "as of" date | What's left, and the date of that figure | From the latest statement |
| Estimated end date | When the last payment is due | An estimate for MCAs |
| Collateral or UCC | Yes or no, and what's secured | From the contract or a UCC search |
| Notes | Anything a reader should know | For example "renewal-eligible" or "in reconciliation" |
How to fill in the MCA rows
Take the first numbers straight from each contract: the date funded, the purchase price, the total payback and the payment. Take the balance from the funder's most recent statement or portal, and write down the date it's from. The only figure you calculate is the monthly equivalent.
Here's what three rows and the totals look like:
| Funder | Type | Payment | Frequency | Monthly equivalent | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funder A | MCA | $400 | Daily | $8,400 | $30,000 |
| Funder B | MCA | $750 | Weekly | $3,250 | $18,000 |
| Lender C | Equipment | $1,200 | Monthly | $1,200 | $35,000 |
| Total | $12,850 | $83,000 |
Example only, not an offer.
The totals row is the part people read first: $12,850 a month in payments against $83,000 still owed. Whether that's a comfortable load depends on your deposits and margins. Our guide to how many MCAs is too many shows how to test it against your slowest month.
If an advance is repaid as a percentage of card sales, there's no fixed payment to copy. Enter your average recent holdback from your processor statements, and say so in the Notes column.
Loans, lines of credit and leases
The other rows follow the same idea with slightly different numbers:
- Line of credit: put the credit limit in Original amount, the amount currently drawn in Current balance, and the scheduled payment on what you've drawn in Payment amount.
- Term loan or SBA loan: enter the amount borrowed, the interest rate, the monthly or weekly payment and the final payment date from the loan agreement.
- Equipment financing or a lease: enter the payment and end date, and put "Equipment" in Collateral or UCC.
- Business credit cards: list the current balance and the minimum payment, and note that it changes each month.
Keep every row in the same currency format and the same "as of" date where you can, so the totals add up cleanly.
Keep it accurate
A schedule is only as good as its newest number. A few habits keep it honest:
- Update balances from statements, not memory. Copy the figure and its date from each funder's statement or portal.
- Mark paid-off advances. Move them to a "paid off" section rather than deleting them, and keep the payoff letter. See paying off an MCA early for what that letter should include.
- Date the whole schedule. Put an "as of" date at the top. Old balances can make your business look more stretched than it is, or less.
- Add new financing the day it funds. Including renewals, which replace a row rather than adding one.
Download the free template
Download the MCA debt schedule template (CSV). It opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. There's no email or sign-up required.
The file has the column headers above and three example rows marked EXAMPLE. Delete the example rows, add one row per financing, and add a totals row for the monthly equivalent and current balance columns. If you're preparing a refinance, a current schedule is one of the first things a lender will want. Our guide to refinancing an MCA into a loan lists the rest.
When to skip the spreadsheet
A spreadsheet works, but it goes stale the moment a payment clears. If most of your rows are advances, the free Bylt Capital tracker keeps the same information current without the manual updates. Add each advance, from any funder, with the numbers from your contract. The tracker shows your total balance, your payments as one monthly number, and a payoff date for each advance. When a funder's statement shows a different balance, type it in and the tracker carries on from there. You can mark an advance paid off when it's done.
It's free, and you don't have to apply for anything or pass a credit check. When a lender asks for a written schedule, you can copy the figures from the tracker into the template in a few minutes.
What to do next
- Download the template.
- Fill in one row per financing, from your contracts and latest statements.
- Convert every payment to a monthly figure and total them.
- Date it, and update it with each statement.
- Or add each advance to the free tracker and let it keep the totals.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bylt Capital
Daniel Morgan is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bylt Capital, a direct provider of merchant cash advances, lines of credit, and equipment financing for small and mid-sized businesses. He began his career in merchant cash advance origination, where he advised business owners on funding options before taking on a team leadership role. He then moved into syndication, co-investing in advances alongside established funders, and built that into direct funding of smaller transactions. He later raised institutional capital to found Bylt Capital.
Having worked across origination, syndication, and underwriting, Daniel brings a full-cycle view of business funding. He leads Bylt Capital's mission to give business owners clear, transparent information about their financing before they commit.